The present disclosure relates to a weatherstrip fixing structure for fixing a weatherstrip used to seal the gap between a vehicle door and the edge of a vehicle body opening.
A weatherstrip is arranged in the vicinity of the edge of a vehicle door, for example, to seal the gap between the door and the edge of a vehicle body opening. Examples of this type of known weatherstrips include a weatherstrip having an elongated hollow portion that extends along the edge of a door and made of an elastic material as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-72386, Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 2568228, and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-80951. The hollow portion is interposed between the edge of the door and the edge of a vehicle body opening. When the door is closed, the hollow portion is elastically deformed by being sandwiched between the edge of the door and the edge of the vehicle body opening. This provides good sealability.
In each of these patent documents, the weatherstrip includes an extruded part and a molded part, which has a hollow portion molded with molds. During this molding process, a core member is used to form the inner surface of the hollow portion. For this reason, the hollow portion has a slit-shaped core removal hole which is formed somewhere along the circumference of the hollow portion and through which the core member is removed after the molding process. The core removal hole is closed with an adhesive.
To fix a weatherstrip to a door, an elongated attachment member (with an optional length of 30-100 cm, for example) separate from an extruded weatherstrip body may be used while being coupled to the weatherstrip body as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-80951, for example. The attachment member has a plate-like portion fixed to the extruded weatherstrip body, and a resilient head protruding from the plate-like portion. The weatherstrip may be fixed to the door by fastening the resilient head into an attachment hole of the door.